General Dentistry

Trusted Dental Services

We have the expertise and equipment to give your teeth the care that they deserve.

Catch it when it is small, easy to treat, and less expensive!! We believe you should be able to decide what level of care you want. If it is possible to see that there is a problem starting you should be given the option to stop it before it turns into something larger before the decay reaches a point where you need a crown or worse that decay has reached the inside layer of the tooth and you need a root canal.

You should be given options before that point if at all possible. Dr. Cemarka does everything in his power to prevent you from having to have a root canal. Unlike most dentists, he won’t just place a new filling or crown directly on top of the tooth once he has removed the decay. He first removes all the unstable tooth structure and old restorations and then he places a thermal liner in order to do everything possible to prevent irritation of the nerve.

Dr. Cemarka was a dental lab tech for 18 years which is what initially made him interested in becoming a dentist. His many years of experience as a lab tech makes him an expert in knowing exactly what to do in order to help the lab to produce a superior result. This helps us to design complicated cases as well as straightforward ones.

Cavities

Decay is caused by bacteria. The bacteria eat sugar and produce acid, the acid dissolves away the tooth structure (this is what we call a “cavity”. In the very, very early stages of decay, before it shows up to the naked eye, fluoride can be used to reverse the decay, but again they need to be very small. When they are healed by use of fluoride the area of the tooth that was beginning to break down and had fluoride come in and stabilize it will look like a white chalky patch. People often wait until they feel something to get a cavity taken care of; however, by the time you feel a cavity the decay has advanced and reached the inside layer of the tooth called the pulp chamber and at this stage, you would need a root canal to control infection. We would much prefer you take care of cavities when they are small, painless and less expensive.

Diagnosing a cavity can be tricky. We can see cavities on the chewing surface by looking in your mouth but we can’t see a cavity in between the teeth or most infections without an x-ray. This is why we take x-rays once a year, which is the industry norm, whenever you have symptoms, or when we are suspicious that there may be something wrong. If we can’t tell you what is going on without xrays how will you be able to make a decision on how to treat it? How will we be able to tell there is anything wrong? By the time you feel symptoms it is usually at the root canal stage.

On the chewing surface the thought used to be that there were just “stain” in the grooves of the teeth and unless the dentist’s instrument “stuck” in that groove it wasn’t full decay. We have seen it first-hand that most of the time when we remove a stain in the groove of a tooth there is actually decay underneath and the decay opens up like a cave underneath the stain and is actually a full-blown cavity.

It is a fallacy that if a tooth doesn’t hurt then it isn’t a cavity. Don’t wait until decay is painful to have it taken care of, more than likely it has reached the nerve if you feel it at all and that usually means that you will need a root canal. We want to help you avoid root canals!!

Silver Fillings vs White Composite Fillings

We no longer use “silver” fillings for the vast majority of patients. This is not a cosmetic choice although the results are a vast cosmetic improvement. The choice was made to not do silver fillings because silver fillings are held in by the shape of the filling and there is no seal between silver fillings and teeth.

There is no bond between a silver filling and the tooth structure to prevent bacteria from seeping in, instead, it is held in by the shape of the preparation which is shown in red in the diagram. Silver fillings have to be 2-3 times the size of a composite filling in order to take care of the same amount of decay.

We have to make the undercuts to hold the filling in the tooth. This means that in order to hold a silver filling in your tooth we have to remove healthy tooth structure for retention. Subsequently, every time a filling is replaced it has to be made larger and at a certain point, you will not have enough tooth structure left to support a filling.

When, finally, there is not enough tooth structure left to support a filling, you will have to do a crown in order to save the tooth and prevent it from breaking. This is why the smaller we can keep a filling, while still removing the decay, the longer you can avoid having a crown done. This is why we chose composite fillings. White composite fillings are now the industry standard and are free from mercury.

Avoiding Root Canals

Root canals are diagnosed once decay has reached the pulp chamber, once the nerve of the tooth dies and causes an infection, or when a tooth or even when a tooth is extremely sensitive because the nerve is irritated.

The nerve and blood vessels lie in the center of the tooth or in the “canal” of the tooth going down each root. Once we know the nerve has either died already or is in the process of dying we cannot avoid an infection without a root canal.

A root canal treatment is the process of removing the nerve of the tooth and the blood vessels, cleaning it out and filling it with a material to prevent bacteria from entering the tooth. Most of the time the tooth will need a crown after the root canal to hold it together and prevent the tooth from breaking.

Dr. Cemarka does everything in his power to prevent you from having to have a root canal. This starts with making sure you have the option of treating the decay early before it reaches the nerve. Unlike most dentists, he won’t just place a new filling or crown directly on top of the tooth once he has removed the decay. He first removes all the unstable tooth structure and old restorations and then he places a thermal liner in order to do everything possible prevent irritation of the nerve.

If you would like a thermal lining placed even underneath regular fillings we are happy to do that for you, this is an inexpensive option to add. Most dentists don’t even give you this option, it is only done when the filling is extremely close to the nerve. It is the best thing available to help you to prevent sensitivity and nerve irritation. Either way we will let you make that choice when the liner is optional.

Crowns

Crowns are done when there is not enough tooth structure left to support a filling. They hold the tooth together. 98% of the time we use crowns that are all porcelain, they have no metal in them so you will not have a dark line next to your gums and they will look very natural.

There are many people who can be sensitive to the older metal crowns and it can be seen in the inflammation in their gums. All porcelain crowns can also be done as cosmetic options and are the same material as veneers.

Aging Smiles

Beyond seeing young people, most of our patients have been seeing us for years and as a result, we have a great deal of experience with people who have middle-aged smiles as well as seniors and their special needs. As we age our needs change and our recommendations on maintaining your oral health will change as well.

It becomes even more critical that your teeth function well for you to maintain your nutrition and general health. Our recommendations are very individualized and your options will depend on whether or not you are taking medications and what they are, how much inflammation you have, how much stain you have, your dexterity, your bite, etc. Just know that recommendations from us will never be one size fits all.

We take all factors into consideration and our recommendations are based on your individual needs. This is also the time in life to consider esthetics in a different light, if we need to do work to improve the function of your mouth then you should have options to make them look better when appropriate at the same time.

Senior Care

We love our senior patients and we do not treat them the same as the rest of our patients, they have different needs and abilities and stressors.

We have made a special effort in developing protocols for their needs. Ways to make them feel comfortable and safe.

Unfortunately, the older we get the more complicated health care can become. For some unknown reason, most dentists treat seniors with the same protocols as the rest of their patients.

Different people have different needs and we have specific protocols for people with limited dexterity that can affect how well they can take care of their mouth, we have tools that can help them.

Their mouths are often dryer from medication and this dramatically effects how prone they are to decay. We have patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s who are taken care of by family members. Their family caregivers are exhausted and need help with managing their oral health. We have easy solutions for them that don’t involve more work on their part. We will figure out how to address our senior patients’ unique needs.

We love to spend extra time with our seniors to make sure they are comfortable. We help our seniors with special services like being able to arrange rides for them through UBER so they don’t need to worry or stress, meeting them outside so they can have help getting in and out of their cars, meeting them at their car with our huge umbrella to make sure they are safe and dry and most of all comfortable!!

We have pillows for under their knees or neck for extra back support. Blankets if they get cold. If you ever want us to help you with any issues we are happy to, just give us a call and let us problem solve for you!

CHILDREN

We should start to see your child very young, around age 2 if there are no issues before that age. It is important that we do everything we can to make coming to the dentist a positive, fun experience! Children need a cleaning and exam every 6 months at least. Their growth needs to be monitored and they just do not have the dexterity to properly clean their teeth until they are about 7 years old.

We want to work with you on preventing cavities and catching problems early. In addition to helping them learn to take good care of their teeth they need to be evaluated for growth patterns/ irregularities so we can catch issues early on. Early intervention with an orthodontist can actually prevent a child from having to have braces at all!

There are ways to determine whether or not your child may develop sleep apnea as an adult and if we can catch it early enough it can be avoided with minimal effort. It can present differently in a child. Did you know sleep apnea can occur without snoring? Let’s make sure your child has the best preventative care for their mouth and their general health. Did you know many children are misdiagnosed with ADD or ADHD when they actually just are not getting enough oxygen at night while they sleep? Let us evaluate whether your child needs to see a specialist or is at risk for developing sleep apnea.

Invisalign

We are proud to offer Invisalign. The alternative to traditional braces. It is removable, requires less office visits than traditional braces, it is nearly invisible, you are better able to clean your teeth and control gum disease and it is significantly more comfortable.

Years ago it used to be that Invisalign couldn’t do everything that traditional braces could, but that is no longer the case. It is extremely rare, only with extreme cases, that Invisalign wouldn’t be able to accomplish the same thing as traditional braces, only Invisalign requires less in office time.

On top of that, it is less expensive!! Traditional braces are $7000.00 and up in this area. Our charge is $5500.00 for the entire case, no matter the difficulty.

Visit Us For Your Next Appointment!

Our focus is on providing the best, most comprehensive care for patients of all ages.